the define. the test of character and the person. with these documentaries with a delicate touch on the inner. quote a virus cases surge across europe pressure mounts on regulators to approve a vaccine for use as soon as possible. while in the u.s. a 2nd vaccine is close to getting the go ahead even as intensive care units are running out of space in several states. barb's the whole romany watching al-jazeera life my headquarters here in doha also coming up. and we will control the senate. president elect joe biden campaigns in georgia in a bid to boost the democrats in return for exist crucial for control of the upper

chamber. also a faction of burka rahm says it was behind the abduction of hundreds of schoolchildren in northern nigeria. and scientists track a rogue antarctic ice berg that's on collision course with the island of south georgia. welcome to the program several nations in europe are facing tough choices in the fight against the coronavirus cases are surging ahead of the christmas period with fears that increased travel could accelerate the spread but with new restrictions will hit businesses though the past day has also brought new hope that vaccines could be administered in several countries as soon as next week the team barbara has more from brussels. in brussels they're dreaming of a busy christmas shops reopened in belgium on tuesday despite a recent rise in covered 19 cases but bars and restaurants have to stay closed shop keepers here in belgium are hoping to make the most of the reopening but with daily

covered 19 infections roys ing and the reproduction rated almost one the government is not ruling out bringing in new restrictions at the end of this week. over the border in the netherlands they've gone into a 5 week lockdown closing all non-essential shops as well as schools prime minister mark rooter insists that rising infection rates make it essential to in his words bite through this very sour apple before things get better. it's totally understandable the numbers afghan if this wasn't done the consequences cannot be neglected. or locked down is not really dissolution of a strict enforcement law compulsory facemask even the coronavirus at and shopping malls the temperature should be checked. but there is new hope at the prospect of mass vaccinations across europe after pressure from the german government the european union's regulate free body is set to approve the pfizer biotech vaccine next monday ursula von der lion president of the european commission tweeted i

welcome the e m a bringing forward its meeting to discuss the pfizer bio and take vaccine before christmas likely that the 1st europeans will be vaccinated before the end of 2020. germany hopes of vaccinate up to $4000000.00 citizens by the end of the year but with hundreds still dying from the corona virus every day it's bringing international locked down on wednesday. in france they've lifted a lot down but they're bringing in a nighttime curfew and bars and restaurants remain closed tuesday so members of the cultural industries protests angry that places like museums and theaters are not allowed to open number 3 to the huge numbers of cinemas in theaters that will close its catastrophic person will no longer be the culture city it was before the lockdown it backwards you can't say one sector is essential and another is not there's no evidence of clusters in theatres in cinemas now the government's advice on people to quarantine before meeting up at christmas because he controls

a positive scientific can't sleep saying and i view that as reasonable if you can self confine for 8 days before christmas if you can it's not possible for everyone across europe the message from governments is the same please be careful over christmas so the new year can be a better one knitting barber al-jazeera brussels. britain's prime minister is under pressure to reconsider plans to ease coronavirus restrictions over the christmas period under current measures up to 3 households will be allowed to mix over the 5 day festive season and urgent review was called for up to 2 leading medical journals warned the decision to relax the rules was rash and would cost many lives the decision is expected by the end of the week. a 2nd grade virus vaccine is set to be given approval in the u.s. this week regulators say the job produced by the drug for madonna is safe and highly effective if an independent panel gives the go ahead on thursday it would

make the us the 1st country to approve 2 vaccines to show that the murder injection is more than 94 percent effective when 2 shots are taken $28.00 days apart rob reynolds has more than los angeles where the health authorities are warning hospital capacity is close to being overwhelmed. system is really approaching its breaking point very quickly the numbers in california and across the united states are staggering 42000 new cases of covert 19 reports reported on monday in california that broke all previous existing records i mean cal and california and the nation's largest county los angeles county 10000000 people live here how many i.c.u. units intensive care unit beds are left in los angeles county less than 100 and in some counties in california east of here and to the north the number has dropped to 0 in at least one state miss the state of mississippi the health authorities there

are reporting that they have completely run out of intensive care unit beds the governor of california gavin newsom in a briefing earlier today spoke of authorizing the purchase and distribution of 40000 body bags as he tried to impress upon people the importance of abiding by the stay at home orders that are in effect in this state. health experts in the united states say the pandemic has led to the largest exodus of senior public health officials in american history some say they've been the target of political activists conservative groups and anti vaccination campaign is if you knighted around common goals bittorrent be reports. the protestors in the u.s. state of idaho gather outside a public health meeting they say they oppose the mandatory wearing of masks some health officials say they face similar demonstrations during the coronavirus

pandemic if you haven't figured it out by now this whole thing yeah but. tissue coleman is the lane county public health administrator in the state of kansas she says she's struggled to keep her rural county safe from coated 19 my friendship list has decreased and i just i don't have. it's not that important to me to be friends with someone who's going to be so against trying to protect the public because they don't want to be told to do something at least 181 health workers in $38.00 states have resigned retired or have lost their job since april experts say it's the largest exodus of public health officials in american history this is a huge range rainer you know you know where you're in the leadership right. now linda vale is the health officer in michigan she's received letters at home

calling her a communist and a fascist but she says she won't resign clearly have made that decision and they're not easy decisions to make because this is not a job that you want to leave during the midst of a pandemic there is an entire community of people that are out there the pending on you and with the biggest back the nation campaign in the country's history on the way that may be more true now than ever before victoria gay to be al-jazeera. after his presidential win was fined by the electoral college joe biden has traveled to the state of georgia to come payne's the 2 democratic candidates in a runoff vote but he determined control of the senate now the republicans have a narrow majority in the upper chamber and the democrats need to win both races in january to flip control but if the republicans win either contests they would maintain power in the senate allowing them to block biden's legislative agenda folks you know you all did something extraordinary in november you voted in

record numbers you voted to improve the lives of every georgian and your voter as if your life depended on it well guess what. now you're going to have to do it again come january 5th i got a vote in record numbers again earlier the man whose power the democrats are seeking to reduce through the georgia races senate majority leader mitch mcconnell finally acknowledged joe biden's dick cheney the electoral college has spoken so today i want to congratulate president elect joe biden the president elect is no stranger to the senate he's devoted himself to public service for many years i also want to congratulate the vice president elect our colleague from california senator harris beyond our differences all americans can take prothero our nation has a female vice president elect for the very 1st on

a white house correspondent kimberly healthcare tons movement lanta. if you want to get anything done he needs to take control of the senate with those 2 very pivotal senate seats so that's why joe biden is here he knows that his agenda is really riding on it and winning those seats in the runoff election that will take place on january 5th now as you can see behind me and not a lot of early voters here at this polling station so he's got a bit of work to do in terms of getting people to come out but there still are a number of weeks until that runoff race is officially wrapping up so he's got some time but at the same time what he needs to do is convince voters who came out in historic numbers in november to do it again and here's the problem there typically is low turnout in these special elections or runoff elections and so that's the challenge because joe biden fled the state georgia by just 12000 votes when i say

flip what does that mean it means that typically this is a republican stronghold it went to joe biden this time around but in terms of that senate race there is certainly an uphill climb for the democrats who again are trying to take over those 2 republican seats so that not only will democrats control the house of representatives as they do right now but also the white house and they hope the senate so that there is really no effort to stop any of the agenda items for joe biden president elect biden is expected to appoint one of his former rivals on the campaign trail to keep company position for pete's video previously the man of south bend in indiana being tipped to head the transportation department is confirmed by the senate will be the 1st openly gay confident member in the u.s. . is seen as a rising star in the democratic party some progressive groups some black leaders of criticized his record on civil rights. back iraq has claimed

responsibility for the abduction of hundreds of school boys in northern nigeria the students were taken on friday from a boarding school in a cut scene a state there are concerns the government has not been upfront about the real number of those abducted it says it's negotiating with what they called armed bandits while the parents of the missing children have staged protests demanding the return of the students. we want government to rescue our children because they have the capacity to do so but their actions are snow because it is not their children that are involved in the incident they put us in the situation now parents and grandparents are an absolute confusion they've stopped us from having peace of mind we are totally said. of the dress has more from a picture. we understand that the group has been on the move since that day or since the night they were taken from can kind of and they've been moving from one forest to the other climbing rocks in mountains according to witnesses who escaped

the most subduction what they are telling the media and with the telling government officials and kids in the state so it's difficult to say exactly where there are there are rumors that they've been moved from in a state deep into the forest in some for a state where over the last 7 years we have seen how. security has deteriorated with bandits attacking communities and displacing hundreds of villages and. rendering a lot of people homeless and usually we were told that only a few dozen students were abducted they need later turned out that they were more the governor of kut in austin was talking about 333 and now witnesses are even claiming that the number is much higher than that because this school had more than 800 boarding students and on the night of the abduction on the following the following morning after the night of the abduction more than $200.00 students were reportedly. rescued or have come back to school before the school was finally shot

so if you had more than 800 students in a school and only 200 have come back then definitely more than 500 are left and accounted for but quite on me saying that it's holding more than 520 of them if not just classified or doctors can then subtly this will be the most the biggest abduction since this conflict or the book crisis began 11 years ago. while still had him on al-jazeera. despite accusations of vote rigging and violating the constitution guinea's president is sworn in for a controversial 3rd term. and this italian also is returning france's highest award a former government minister will tell us why she's following him to stay with us here on al-jazeera.

it's still snowing in japan it's stirring because the crowd is still coming out of the far north eastern part of mainland asia and over the open waters it just produces possibly thunder snow if you like lightning in the shadows a lawful officer fall the western slopes of honshu and a whole card of the wind is now easing leaving behind cold air behind it all it's always been pretty cold but largely sunny and that's true for the northeast of china in the south hong kong's temperatures still affected by this cold flow but it is slowly improving about where it where's the showers are still building in the south china sea the coast of vietnam and for the philippines as a hint maybe of a circulation trying to form here in the western pacific but the biggest showers are forecast to be through indonesia and or way across to the old nostril ear histories to some pretty rough weather at the moment but what season rainy season

in indonesia looks like a good way to one this is out of season rain in india we've seen it come up from the harassed threats moving up towards the northeast and dying out the showers occurring back in to tell now the south of that but you know what's happening in the northern plains of india we've had persistent fog now for several days it's like to be there for the rest of the week delhi is no exception except that air quality is por. but. i was raised in france. these are my grandparents. these are my parents and this is mean. fighting both isis and us on. the 1st of a 2 part epic tale of a remarkable family. the father the son and the jihad that run on al-jazeera.

world. the world. you're watching all just there with me said holroyd never mind of our top stories several nations in europe are still deciding whether to ease or tighten restrictions ahead of the end of year holiday period health experts say lock downs are needed to curb increased travel and a surge in cases but others are warning it will come at the cost of businesses also a 2nd coronavirus that scene is set to be given approval in the u.s. this week regulators say the job produced by the drug for maternal is safe and highly effective. u.s. president elect joe biden has been campaigning for democrats in the state of

georgia ahead of 2 runoff elections next month i thought republicans win either contests they would maintain power in the senate allowing them to block by his legislative agenda. iran is being accused of major flaws in its investigation into the accidental drowning of a civil a civilian airliner that killed 176 people now the ukrainian international airlines plane was shut down shortly after takeoff from tehran in january iran says it was a mistake mistaken for a missile an independent canadian report says the probe is not being conducted properly a many important questions are still unanswered any of the victims were canadian citizens all permanent residence. somalia has cut diplomatic ties with kenya over the breakaway territory of somaliland it's accusing its neighbor of political interference when it comes after kenya's president hosted the leader of somaliland for 3 days somalia has not recalled all of its diplomats from kenya and ordered their counterparts to leave somalia within 7 days. guineas

a president has been sworn in for a 3rd term the 86 year old won almost 60 percent of the votes in october selection but his opponents say the poll was rigged and accuse condor of violating the constitution by running for a 3rd term. has more from dakar in neighboring senegal. for this shopkeeper indycar the presidential inauguration of alpha condé is another step back for democracy in his home country guinea most of her body looks considered as you want to the head of guinea's constitutional court praise the 86 year old president eagerness to take on a 3rd term he says he's not duped and has kept a tally of all that has gone wrong since condi came to power 10 years ago from tweaking the constitution to allow him to stay in power to rampant corruption in arresting opponents in a country rich in minerals like gold and box site most canadians are trapped in

poverty but he says condé is failing his people at the beginning we felt like condé would bring us hope that he has shown us this true colors he has disappointed us he doesn't respect the constitution and he exercises control of everything people are scared of him either getting arrested or killed. after his victory was announced in october the military fired live bullets at protesters and went house to house detaining mostly people from the full on the ethnic group to support opposition candidates sitting down in jell-o. he believes condé rigged to the elections and says he won the vote the inauguration is taking place as protests are being held gather during the ceremony are a number of aging african heads of state who like condé have changed their country's constitution to stay in power. outside of. our young african migrants from various friends speaking african countries all of them share this common feeling that they've left behind nations led by presidents clinging on to power

robbing their nations of wealth and leaving young people without jobs. and the space and freedom to express their political views at a car's museum of black civilization the activist from across the continent have gathered to warn of a dangerous trend of civil liberties being stifled and governments muffling democracy and freedom of expression among those taking part is my gello an outspoken critic of condy called his government has issued an international arrest warrant against him you need to use that quote and i view this because we have seen the nations to use the global cornell fire us pandemic as an excuse to district individual and collective freedoms of cities in finding protest when these do not suit governments this pandemic is benefiting autocratic regimes. the borders between guinea and senegal are closed but it is unable to return home to his family

and with the inauguration of alpha condé he fears there will be more trouble ahead nicholas hawke al-jazeera the car. facebook says it's uncovered a rival french and russian dissin from asian campaigns ahead of elections in the central african republic this month and the social media giant says it's the 1st time it seen such a direct battle by competing foreign states on its platforms it's now suspended almost $500.00 accounts and pages central african republic president is a russian ally and a relationship often seen as a threat to france's influence in the country all tech firms could be fined up to 10 percent of their entire global revenue if they fail to remove illegal and harmful content drafter european union rules could see companies such as apple and google broken up under the measures it says it's providing do's and don'ts in a relative unregulated area but google says it would hit innovation similarly the united kingdom government says multi-million dollar fines could be levied on social

media firms there if they fail to limit and remove child sexual abuse and terrorist material. a prominent italian writer and former government officials say they'll return to france as top award protesting the decision to grant the same honor to a gyptian president delivered to assisi right at kuranda u.s. handed in his honor to the french embassy in rome c.c. was given the award last 3 despite human rights concerns over the case of italian student julio regina in 2016 italian prosecutors blame egyptian security officials for torturing and killing him well jazeera spoke with the former italian culture minister naji a violent melandri who's also returning her medal in protest. it is impossible for me to share this armor with regime where young people are tortured and killed you see an italian young student at.

a young. excellent student in 2016 julia janie was unequivocally an equivocally. tortured and here and and it's proved now that there was a roll. of the national security forces in this hungry house change the definition of the family in its constitution effectively banning adoption by same sex couples m.p.'s approved the amendment which says the mother is a woman and the father a man adoptions by same sex couples have been possible if one partner applied as a single person is the latest in a series of restrictions on l g b t rights under prime minister viktor orban and his conservative ruling party dozens of unesco sites that have been damaged dark risk of losing their world heritage status in the 1st of

a 5 part series we visit the ancient ruins on libya's mediterranean coast fighting is that it neglected by local authorities but as malik trainer reports peace talks could help change that established by the phoenicians in the 4th century b.c. the coastal city of broader was used as a trading post that served as an outlet for a treat from africa it was later ruled by the new 1000000 kingdom of mass an easter unto rome rebuilt it in the 2nd and 3rd centuries a.d. . today from a distance it looks like it's endured the violence libya has witnessed for nearly a decade. but close up are signs of the conflict. the conflict in libya between an internationally recognized government of national accord for g.n.a.t. and warlord police to have 2 years libyan national army l in a letter to unesco to put subrata and 4 others on its list of endangered world

heritage sites so brought to was controlled by forces loyal to have to during his failed military campaign to capture the capital but the tripoli based government retook the city in april. how model for unfortunately the city of subprocess has seen several armed conflicts in the last decade the ruins were hit during the fighting but thank god there was only minor damage to the theater. but now brought as crown jewel a 5000 seat theater has survived and stands 3 stories tall built by the romans nearly 2000 years ago it's a testament to the history and culture this country on the southern shores of the mediterranean has officials here 30000 of the foreign tourists use the come and visit but the years long conflict and political divisions have had a devastating impact on the tourism sector. and of course there's also the pandemic for now besides a few local families heritage sites like this remain for the most part abandoned

but some still come. we live in tripoli with cave 19 we're all a bit depressed so i brought my kids here to see the history of their country and to get some fresh air the lack of attention and funding by authorities is clear and we all hope the fighting will end and we can have security and economic stability in our country i hope that those in power realize how important developing our historical sites are it could create jobs and give young men an incentive to leave their weapons behind. with un facilitated talks between the rival sides ongoing many here hope stability will be achieved however long that takes and with that a new lease of life for libya's historic sites malik traina al-jazeera subrata well in part 2 of our unesco sites in dangerous areas we explore the problems facing florida's ethical aids national park and why the sprawling river of grass in

is in a critical state that's on wednesday attention to here on al-jazeera. a team or british scientists is heading to the south atlantic to investigate a massive iceberg the size of a small country which is drifting towards the island of south georgia furby assessing potential damage to the region's delicate ecosystem a report from. the iceberg now has a 68 a it's one of the biggest ever recorded more than 4000 square meters it broke away from the antarctic last in the sea ice shelf in 2017 and is drifting toward south georgia at about 20 kilometers a day and is actually massive in terms of icebergs mostly icebergs when they're in the open ocean they tend to break our current or smaller icebergs this one remarkably as remained intact and that is still even more remarkable because it's got quite a shallow keel is not very thick so we'd expect it to break apart

a $68.00 day is about 200 meters thick and one theory is that the iceberg will run aground when it reaches the continental shelf around the island the challenge facing the team is to assess the impact something so huge might have on the vulnerable south atlantic ecosystem so something the size of lots of bird is going to be a massive impact on an island like south georgia which isn't that much bigger than luxemburg itself. the iceberg is formed from glacier ice and as it melts to release billions of tons of freshwater into the sea potentially devastating krill phytoplankton and other species low on the food chain that in turn could threaten the diverse ward life on the island there's another lot of matter. it's one of the most pristine pieces in the world with the ocean of foreigner at its most of the world that's the problem. the scientists will employ 2 robotic submarines to

measure the temperature salinity and levels of phytoplankton in the water around the iceberg they also collect and study animals in the water also was it doesn't just anyone if we don't protect the oceans these kind of events will become increasingly frequent and the impact it reversible greenpeace and others have long been warning of the effects of climate change but say the threat presented by this enormous iceberg is one that cannot be ignored. and they're all just era one osiris. schoolchildren 0 with means the whole wrong a reminder of our top news stories several nations in europe are still deciding whether to ease or tighten restrictions ahead of.